Lot 1: BELON, PIERRE.

L'Histoire de la nature des oyseaux, avec leurs descriptions, & naïfs portraicts retirez du naturel. Paris: Chez Guillaume Cavellat, 1555

first edition, 7 parts in 1 volume (continuous pagination), folio (302 x 200mm.), divisional titles, woodcut illustrations in the text, woodcut initials, contemporary vellum, some early ink underlinings, lower outer corner dampstained, some crude tape repairs at end

Nissen IVB 86; Wood, p.230

THE PROPERTY OF A EUROPEAN NOBLEMAN

"On pp. 40 and 41 are the portraits of the skeletons of man and bird to show the affinity between them. This is one of the earliest illustrations of comparative anatomy. Belon was the first to attempt to identify the names of birds given by Aristotle and by Pliny with those current in France" (Wood).